Friday, July 01, 2005


Over the years I figured I either knew or knew of all the people that trouped around the country with elephants. Not so with Rudy and Mrs. Muller. Rather odd since the elephant "Rosie" was featured in a show Billy Rose produced in the NY Hippodrome in 1935 called "Jumbo" featuring JimmyDurante. Their history prior to that is unknown to me and I would assume that their background was primarily Vaudeville. Buckles

Posted by Buckles at 7/01/2005 07:17:00 AM

4 comments:

Anonymous said...

This has nothing ti do with elephants, however, RE: Billy Rose's Stage Presentation of "JUMBO", An airplane aerial act,"Les Kimris", was originally brought to the U.S. to appear in that show. It consisted of two brothers Leon & Henri, during the dress rehearsal Leon fell and was injured, he never worked in the act again, and was replaced by his wife Vera. Tommy Hanneford once told me, (with no disrespect to Lee Or Trudy), "you should have seen Vera". Leon later fell from the girders while riiging the act in St Paul, on The Davenport Show and was killed. Eventually Henri married Lee and she replaced Vera.
Bill S.

01 July, 2005 12:28
Anonymous said...

I met Jimmy Durante during the rehearsal of John F. Kennedy Gala at the D. C. Armory...Aware that Jimmy was a member of the Circus Fans Association....I ask him, how did he discover the Circus Fans? He responded, it was when I was in "JUMBO" appearing at the New York Hippodrome.

01 July, 2005 19:25
Anonymous said...

I've had several people ssk me why I did'nt finish the Kimris story so here it is. Lee was formerly Elizabeth Wallenda, she was married to Herman, after they seperated she still worked in the act, crossing the wire on Herman's shoulders. The Ringling Show even did a promo thing on whether he would drop her or not.
Lee & Henri worked the Kimris Act till 1964, when they retired the act they offer it for sale to Al Dobritch, and he asked us if we would work the act. After a period of time we took over buying the act, but that's another story. We worked it till 1982,and later sold it to David Chabira who sold it to Jay Cocheran, and I don't know where it is now
Bill S.

07 July, 2005 22:08
Unknown said...

Rudy Mueller (later shortened to Muller) was a Czech trainer. He and his wife Anna toured with Big Rosie, mostly in vaudeville, but also,with some circuses, start at least by 1923--possibly as early as 1919. Rudy concocted s ridiculous story that Rosie was one of a herd of sacred white elephants of Burma, somehow stolen and taken on a ship. Allegedly, when the theft was discovered,,the culprit was hanged by the furious crew (if that's so, why not return the elephant?). Rudy said he bought her from a sea captain in Cuba. During their act, Anna dressed as Princess Mararanda, and would put her head in Rosie's mouth. Rosie would also place her foot directly over Anna's face as she lay on the floor--a trick they repeated in JUMBO ( but Durante was scared at first!). Just prior to Rose hiring her for JUMBO, Rosie was working at Luna Park, in Coney Island.

09 July, 2018 17:49

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